The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)

Here we are.  Even though, having read the series before, I don’t mind going through it within-the-story chronologically instead of as-written chronologically, I feel it’s still a little trickier to talk about in that order.  The other books have plenty to recommend them, and in general, I wouldn’t say The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is necessarily my favorite of the series, but in terms of talking about them, it really is easiest when you can use this book as a foundation upon which the others are built.

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are four siblings evacuated from London during World War II.  Sent to live in the country with an odd but kindly professor, the children are shaken from what they expect to be a dreary, rather lonely stay when Lucy makes an unbelievable discovery:  the ornate wardrobe in the spare room serves as a gateway to another world.  In the land of Narnia, she (and later her siblings) learn that they may in fact be the very saviors prophesied to rid Narnia of the tyrannical White Witch, who has cursed the land with an eternal winter.  They are aided by the friends they meet there in the Narnian resistance, who, in addition to having waited many years for the prophecy to come to pass, have also pinned their hopes on the long-awaited return of Aslan, the Great Lion.

A big part of the story’s appeal, I’d say, is in the charm of its details.  Entering another world through a wardrobe, an English lamppost in a fantasy land (shades of the TARDIS in Doctor Who, which followed a little over ten years later,) a fully-furnished beaver dam with Mrs. Beaver fretting about how they can’t bring the sewing machine with them on the run from the White Witch.  These little moments do a lot to flesh out both Narnia and the narrative at large, making you more forgiving of some of the story’s more obvious elements (i.e., these four English schoolkids who showed up like three days ago are destined to be the saviors of all Narnia in a ludicrously-timely fashion.)  But, hey – Aslan!  The White Witch!  Mr. Tumnus!  Narnians turned to stone and a Father Christmas who gives swords as presents!  It’s all good, right?

I kid, I kid.  No, it’s not perfect, but it does create something fairly special that’s become an iconic part of Britain’s children’s literature.  The four children are drawn lightly but pretty well, the White Witch is a great villain in this, her first actual rodeo, and the legend of Aslan nicely precedes the reality of him.  As far as the Christian allegory is concerned, it’s very pointed, but since it was written for children, that’s understandable, and some of the parallels are quite well-written.  (I also like that the professor, in discussing whether or not Narnia could be real, uses the same “lie, delusion, or truth” argument that Lewis uses in reference to Jesus’s divinity.  Had Lewis already used it at this time, or did it originate here?  I know – what do they teach them at these schools, am I right?)

Warnings

Scary moments for kids, violence, and thematic elements.